Officer Shawn Cavin handcuffs auto theft suspect Jayson Hughes, 35, at right as other officers detain Robin Frese, 45, in the center of the street. Unmarked detective units can be seen blocking in...

GLENN KAHL/The Bulletin

A wanted auto theft suspect took a nap in the wrong spot shortly before 1:30 Tuesday afternoon in a stolen pickup truck and ended up behind bars with his female accomplice by late afternoon.

Jayson Hughes and Robin Frese were both transported to San Joaquin County Jail in French Camp charged with two felonies. Hughes is being held in lieu of $23,750 bail and Frese’s bail is $15,375.

Police had monitored a call for medics for a reported unconscious man in a white Ford 250 extended cab pickup truck in the 1500 block of Claremont Drive and they responded thinking it might be the same vehicle officers had chased in a late Sunday night pursuit.

Claremont is north of Louise Avenue and west of Union Road.

Fire units and medics were advised to stage in their vehicles a block away from the scene until police determined if it was safe for them to proceed.

Two unmarked cars swooped down on the parked truck, boxing it in from the front and the rear so the suspects couldn’t escape. Officers found Hughes had only been sleeping and wasn’t unconscious as had been reported.

The truck had been stolen two weeks earlier from Vallejo Court in French Camp.

It was shortly after midnight Sunday when the chase was initiated at Moffat Boulevard and Spreckels Road, speeding eastward on Moffat and then northbound on Austin Road over the freeway with the suspect eventually turning into an orchard to throw officers off his trail. The truck, with its sleeping driver, was actually found on Tuesday only about a block away from the suspect’s home, police said.

The owners of the truck told officers that a number of items were missing from the vehicle and it had damage to its left rear fender they said was not there before it was taken.

Hughes will face a judge in the Manteca Branch of the San Joaquin County Superior Court on Thursday at 1:30 p.m. Frese is scheduled to appear at the Stockton Courthouse on the same day and at the same time.